MKE Week 2 – Words Matter

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Category:  Week Two

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If you are someone who loves to read and write you must love Haanel’s style. Today’s writers could learn a lot from Haanel and other writers from the turn of the 20th century.

When it comes to the vocabulary used by the writers of Haanel’s era, we need to have a dictionary at our side at all times. We never know when he’s going to use a word we have never seen before. The problem, though, is we may not find that word in our modern dictionary, and I don’t have a 1912 Webster’s Dictionary.

But I do have Google!

My search for a definition from a 1912 dictionary let me know what Haanel meant in number 16 of Part 1 when he said, “Life is an unfoldment, not accretion.” I learned “accretion” is “a process of growth or increase.” And, then his next sentence in number 16 is made clear…what comes to us in the world without is what we already possess in the world within.

Then, in number 42 of Part 1 we come across a familiar word that we quickly realize had a different meaning in Haanel’s time. Plastic. Gotta love his phrase, “fathomless sea of plastic mind substance,” but that doesn’t match my understanding of plastic. In 1912 plastic is defined as “capable of shaping or molding a mass of matter.” Interesting.

A final example that stretches our understanding came in Part 2, number 1. I am older than most in this class, but this one goes back further than my understanding. Haanel says…” is not unlike the one who should go about to illuminate the Universe with a rushlight.” Did you guess that a rushlight is “dipping the pith of rush in tallow?’ I guessed wrong, too!

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  • Love Love this post. Thanks for taking the time to write about definitions. Looking forward to reading more about your journey.

  • I love vocabulary! Thanks for the reminder to look at what they meant 100 years ago. Fascinating!

  • Hi Hal, Great insights on Haanel’s unique style and vocabulary! Your leadership in delving into historical language is commendable. Thank you for sharing!

  • Thank you for sharing, Hal. It’s funny that as we learn these new words and meaning, somehow those words and meanings fit in with our current life, often.

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